Salutations

[martixy]

Greetins and salutations.

I discovered this site through various other online forums.

I've recently been looking into creating a world map for an epic D&D campaign I'm putting together.

However I'm so very, extremely, utterly new to the mere concept of map-making, I haven't the absolute foggiest of where to begin or what to do.

I am a lost soul in need of guidance and help. And a map.
Cartographers, use your awesome might to save me from this hopeless plight.

[J.Edward]

Hey martixy - welcome to the Guild.
Map making is a very satisfying craft but also one that requires a bit of time and practice.
I would say to give it a bit more of a try before giving in.
But if you want to request a map, there is a subforum area for that - Mapmaking Requests
Cheers,
J

[tilt]

Welcome Martixy -as J.E says, it takes time and effort to make a map.. but oh.. how its worth it all ... browse around and check out our tutorials and when you're ready to start mapping - make a WIP thread for help and critique while you work on your map

[Josiah VE]

Welcome to the guild!

[martixy]

Thank you

I don't think you can count as "giving in" if you haven't even started though.
However it seemed prudent to consult the experts even before beginning the journey.

I mean I truly am completely new to the concept itself.
Thankfully someone graciously provided a tutorial even for us artistically challenged folk.

I do have a question however, how much time and effort can I expect to have to put in? (for a rather large world map, on the scale of earth at least)
Bear in mind that as a complete outsider and the whole craft still seems like arcane wizardry to me.

[tilt]

Really depends on how you want to make it - pencil on paper, campaign cartographer, paint programs etc. .. and the quality/detail you like to have. But hopefully you'll come to love mapping along the way and feel that the time you spend is hours well spent.
You could rough sketch a whole world in 10 minutes if you like - but you can also draw it carefully, color it in, make thousand details and spend a whole year or more.. I'll suggest starting small though

[Tonnichiwa]

Welcome to the guild Martixy. I hope you enjoy your time here as there is a lot of very talented artist here that are very happy to help you out along your map making journey. Tilt is definitely spot on with what he said about how much time it will take to make a world map.

When I first started making maps I had no drawing talent what so ever. So I bought a program from a company called Profantasy. They made a program for mapping that they claimed could make awesome maps for my RPG game very easily, with no art talent needed. I thought it was a great idea so I bought it. Little did I know that 1) they were right. it can do what they say it can, but 2) I didn't know it would take me so long to actually learn the software well enough to make maps I thought were decent enough to use for my gaming group. Two and a half years later and I'm loving the program because I was lucky enough that my wife bought me their entire software suite (which is quite a bit of software) and now I am actually taking forays into making my own art for it.

With Campaign Cartographer I can actually make an entire world very quickly, in a matter of hours, yet if I do that it won't necessarily have as much detail as I would like. So it completely depends on how much detail you want your world to have. And of course, what you want the map to look like. There are some very minimalistic styles that I have seen where you could make a world in a matter of hours and it would be totally fine, but those styles are rare and limited to only a few looks. If you look at real world maps, the farther back from the planet you get, the less detail there needs to be for your map. So really, as Tilt said, it depends on how you want your map to look.

[ladiestorm]

Hi Martixy!

I'm also a fairly new member to the guild, and a fairly new mapper as well. I've only been here a couple of .months. I can tell you, this is a great place to learn about mapping, get inspiration, and also to showcase your work for help along the way.

Like you, I am making maps for a D&D campaign I will be running, and like Tonnichiwa, I too have campaign cartographer, just the basic 3pack- campaign/city/dungeon mapper. In about two weeks, I was able to create a series of basic continental maps that make up my world, with very little instruction. They were VERY basic, however. I just put something together that looked right to me, without much thought(beyond the scope of my game) of how or where to place things. I've learned a bit since then. . I just recently finished a map of my starter town ( my players' home base) that took me so.ost three weeks to map. That's longer than it took me to map my entire world! And when you look at it, then look at my first maps, you can SEE the difference.

I guess what I'm trying g to say is that the amount of time it takes to make maps, depends on you. How much time you are willing to spend to make them, and how you go about making them. Some of these guys(and gals) have been working on the same map for years. Others can make absolutely beautiful maps in a couple of days. The best way for you to find out, and to learn how, is to just jump right in! Fortunately you have come to the right place to get help along the way.